Since the collapse of the Soviet Union it has seemed to many that the socialist calculation debate is essentially over, with a decisive verdict in favor of the market. Recent instabilities in the world market are again prompting the question whether some form of conscious regulation of economies may be appropriate. We argue that the increasing power of modern computer technology along with the ...

INTRODUCTION The growth prospects of individual post-socialist economies are to a great extent constrained by their ability to transform inherited technological capacities from the period of closed economy into assets in the market economy context. In terms of analysis this transformation cannot be reduced on marketisation of old capabilities. Capabilities exist in an institutional context whic...

AIMS To make quantitative estimates on a global basis of exposure of disease-relevant dimensions of alcohol consumption, i.e. average volume of alcohol consumption and patterns of drinking. DESIGN Secondary data analysis. MEASUREMENTS Level of average volume of drinking was estimated by a triangulation of data on per capita consumption and from general population surveys. Patterns of drinki...

This paper analyses the equilibrium dynamics of exploitation and class in general accumulation economies with population growth, technical change, and bargaining by adopting a novel computational approach. First, the determinants of the emergence and persistence of exploitation and class are investigated, and the role of labour-saving technical change and, even more importantly, power is highli...

Since 1978, China has embarked on the ambitious transition from a planned economy toward a market economy, which has resulted in profound changes in every aspect of the society, including the provision and consumption of housing. With privatization in the housing system and the emergence of a housing market, the rate of homeownership in urban China has sky-rocketed from around 20% in the 1980s ...

The formerly socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe have experienced profound political and economic changes since the demise of Communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Each country has its own particular history of transformation to a freer, more democratic, more market-based society. The timing and specific circumstances of the revolutions in each country vary. Even today, the...

WDI. We express our gratitude to the editor, John McMillan and two anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions. ABSTRACT. We propose a clarification of the notion of a soft budget constraint, a concept widely used in the analysis of socialist, transitional, and market economies. Our interpretation is broad enough to embrace most existing approaches to soft budget constraint phenome...